Stories from a real life cowpuncher that will give you a smile and a glimpse of God.

The breath of life

by Kevin on November 11, 2010

There are two things I am allergic to: hay and matchin’ up socks for folding. Neither one of them has ever killed me, but they both make my life miserable. Add a jacket, a respirator, a heater going full blast, and asthma, and you have a recipe for a wreck.

The wind was blowing three things down: the temperature, my mood, and my hat. We were picking up alfalfa hay out of the field and the weather was turning nasty. Sleet and rain started to pelt me as I walked along and threw the bales up on the trailer to my little brother. Dad had already taken his turn at both and was now driving the truck.

There’s a magic situation anyone that works outside will understand. It’s that time when it is freezing and you must wear a coat, but then you are working so hard that you sweat. I have an aversion to being cold, so I haven’t found the magic combination for those types of situations. If it’s cold outside, I put on the biggest coat I have. I hate being cold.

I probably looked funny walking around with a cowboy hat and a dual canister respirator on my face. I wasn’t joking when I said I was allergic to hay. If I have to handle more than about 10 bales, my nose starts producing snot faster than a windmill produces water in a high wind. My eyes get to itchin’ so fierce that I scoot my face around on the carpet like my wife’s dog does when he gets wormy–only, it ain’t his face he’s scootin’. Anyways, you can make fun of me all you want, but I wasn’t takin’ any chances on hay getting in my mouth or nose so I wore the respirator.

All three of us that day suffered from asthma. Not the little “tight” feeling in the chest type of asthma. I’m talkin’ about the “can’t freakin’ breathe at all-call the helicopter in-and tell Mom I love her” type of asthma. My brother had his inhaler duct taped to his cheek and the business end stuck in the corner of his mouth. When he needed a shot of “breathe-better-before-you-die”, he would slam his face against a bale and squirt the stuff into his lungs.

I kept telling myself that we were nearly done. I was breathing hard, freezing to death, sweating like a hippy in Cowboy Church, and more than ready to get the thing off of my face.

The last bale got loaded and Jason and I wasted no time getting in the truck.

Jason jumped in and I piled in right behind him in the front seat of the pickup. Dad thought he was doin’ us a favor by having the temperature about 95 degrees in the cab of the truck. When I shut the door, the combination of the cramped cab, big coat, respirator, asthma, and the stifling heat did something to my body.

I felt like if I didn’t get out of all of that gear, I was going to go insane. I felt like someone had tied me up and was sitting on my chest. I couldn’t breathe and I couldn’t shuck all of that stuff in the confines of the cab. My only thought, my only need, my only desire was to breathe deeply before I died.

That’s how sin feels. It wraps you up and keeps you from breathing. Sin suffocates and stifles unbelievers to the point of death.

The joy of forgiveness and knowing in your soul that you have been set free from the bondage of sin is the sweetest breath you can take. No longer are those who call on Christ as Lord of their lives suffocated by the weight of sin.

Ezekiel 37:9
The LORD said: Ezekiel, now say to the wind, “The LORD God commands you to blow from every direction and to breathe life into these dead bodies, so they can live again.”

God has freed all of us with his Son. Jesus’ death and sacrifice is the only means by which you can really live and breathe. If you feel trapped, tangled up, hung in a stirrup, or seem to have a noose around your neck, all you have to do is ask Jesus into your heart. Only then will you be able to really breathe.

I am learning that this takes practice, and lots of it. I sometimes (as anyone else would) go on through daily life and then think. . . its time to sit down and take a breather and ask myself is this what I SHOULD really be doing or saying. Its really hard to live a “perfect” life!! BUT with God anything is possible.

Kevin

Christ knows we can’t be perfect, that’s why He was sent–to be perfect for us. You are absolutely right, with God all things are possible.